Name: Giselle Gestal
Birthsign: The Atronach
Gender: Female
Age: 25
Weight: 105lbs
Race: Breton
Height: 5'2"
Sexuality: Straight
Laterality: Right-handed
Appearance: Short and lithe in stature, with fair skin, strawberry blonde hair, and big, light-blue eyes.
Giselle, with her horse Betsy behind her. Camera quality in Tamriel is notoriously poor in the Fourth Era.
Apparel: Her arrival in Skyrim saw her lose most of her luggage and coin at the border, leaving her with nothing but the clothes she was wearing - which got ruined when she tried to raise some extra coin chopping wood in Riverwood. She has since replaced them with an ill-fitting blue dress which she wears when she isn't travelling, and a basic set of unenchanted robes which she wears at all other times. She always wears a gold and sapphire circlet, which used to belong to her mother and which she was able to hold onto when entering Skyrim.
Magic: Giselle is a self-taught mage, and is capable of a few basic destruction and restoration spells - she is naturally talented in lightning spells, and uses those almost exclusively for self-defence, and she can generate some simple wards too. She is much more interested in advancing her conjuration skills though, and thus far she has largely perfected the art of summoning a spectral wolf with some degree of reliability. She has also been able to conjure a flame atronach with... less consistent success. Her atronachs have a roughly 40% chance of emerging from Oblivion in a
very bad mood, however. As such, she has developed an unusual tendency to summon a spectral wolf
first, so that if something goes wrong it can help to defend her from the atronach. She has learned a frost atronach spell too, but performing it heavily taxes her magicka reserves, and she has decided not to try it again until she's figured out why her flame atronachs are often so annoyed with her first.
Personality: Jubilant and curious, Giselle has an insatiable thirst for knowledge and learning. About
everything. Bored with her quiet life in Anvil, Cyrodiil, she has used all of her modest wealth to commence a Tamriel-wide journey of discovery, starting with Skyrim. She has a natural affinity for magic, and wishes more than anything to become a full-fledged mage, but owing to the state of the Synod and the College of Whispers in Cyrodiil, she is entirely self-taught and unmentored, which can make some of her spells... unreliable. Undeterred, she is intent on joining the College of Winterhold to pursue her dream and hone her skills.
She maintains an optimistic and often naive outlook on life, finding all things fascinating. Her journey from Cyrodiil took thrice as long as necessary because she insisted on stopping whenever her hired carriage passed by anything remotely interesting to her, so that she could study it - and unfortunately, 'remotely interesting' can include anything from new alchemical ingredients and unexplored ruins, to interesting pebbles and bugs. When she lost all of her coin and luggage at the border, she was more upset at losing the samples she'd collected along the way, rather than losing her all of her wordly goods and life savings. This tendency for her to be easily distracted seems to affect nearly everything she does - she once spent an entire day in Candlehearth Hall, Windhelm studying the ever-burning candle there, after the innkeeper told her that it never went out, and on her very first encounter with a draugr she attempted to engage it in conversation, nearly losing her life in the process.
She dislikes combat, and dislikes taking lives even moreso - even if she has no other choice. Her first real life-or-death fight in her life happened immediately after she'd left her hired carriage on arrival in Skyrim, and she was attacked by a pair of wolves on the road to Riverwood. While she defeated them and suffered no injuries, she became extremely depressed afterwards, and had nightmares about the creatures dying in agony because of her. She has since been in a few more fights, and become better at handling them, but she still suffers with guilt whenever she's forced to take a life.
Fighting Style: Desperate and haphazard. She has only been in a handful of real fights, and these have always been thrust upon her, rather than as a result of her seeking them out. At her best, she will summon her spectral wolf (or a flame atronach, if she is feeling particularly brave) and hang back to study how her opponents fight, only offering destructive spell support in the event that it seems absolutely necessary. When her life is in immediate danger, or her summoned ally is defeated and she cannot summon another in time, she will panic and fall back on her natural affinity for lightning spells, hoping that the shock will deter her foes long enough for her to run away. Nevertheless, these spells are remarkably effective for an untrained mage, and if she can remain focussed rather than panicking, she can do some decent damage with lightning bolts.
Likes: Learning and discovering new things. Anything to do with magic is particularly fascinating to her, and alchemy is one of her hobbies, but even something as simple as an interesting-looking stone, or the unusual behaviour of a deer, can just as easily enthral her. She spent several days in the village of Riverwood when she first arrived in Skyrim, and much of that time was her indulging in learning about the local culture and politics, as well as the non-magical crafts of the people who lived there. She befriended Alvor the blacksmith, and took a few lessons in smithing from him - and decided quite quickly that while manual labour clearly wasn't her strong suit, she found it fascinating how much thought and knowledge went into even non-magical vocations.
She reads excessively, and hopes one day to have a library of her own to match the Imperial Library. She loves animals, even the violent ones. Outside of knowledge, she likes meeting interesting new people, has a soft spot for pretty clothes, and is overjoyed if she is able to help somebody with a problem. She believes that magic exists to benefit the world, and is part of the reason she pursues the craft.
Dislikes: Fighting. Giselle
can fight, sort-of, but dislikes doing so, and dislikes killing even more. This is probably why she dislikes violent people as well, especially those who revel in violence and seek it out. She finds wilful ignorance to be frustrating, given her inquisitive nature and open-mindedness, and would rather not spend time around people who are set-in-their-ways, or who refuse to learn even when there is a gap in their knowledge.
While she is a fan of meeting new people and learning all about them, she dislikes large cities, and tries to avoid them if she can.
Affiliations: None. She is seeking to join the College of Winterhold, but has yet to find the place.
Afflictions/Fears: Giselle has no particular fears or 'phobias', besides those rational fears that most mortals share, but she is easily panicked when things become chaotic or violent.
Properties: As a fairly recent arrival to Skyrim, and a relavtively impoverished one at that, Giselle owns no properties in Skyrim. Her expectation is that she will obtain lodgings in the College of Winterhold, when she finally reaches the place and if she is accepted as a student. For now, she stays in inns, and makes coin doing odd-jobs as she travels. She managed to scrape enough money together to purchase a horse, whom she has named Betsy and whom travels with her everywhere.
Job: Giselle was a clerk in Castle Anvil in Cyrodiil prior to embarking upon her journey. She is now unemployed, but has undertaken a number of odd jobs around Skryim since arriving. She attempted to make some coin in Riverwood from chopping wood, but proved to be inept at the task. Instead she has helped people with things ranging from collecting alchemical ingredients and making simple potions, to using magic to solve small problems here and there, and has made enough coin to get by so far, and she even bought a horse.
Weaknesses: Curiosity. Giselle is fairly undisciplined, and lets her curiosity get the better of her, which is usually how she has ended up in the few fights she's been in. She is also untrained, having taught herself everything she knows. She's not very physically imposing either, even by Breton standards, and could easily be overpowered if caught unawares or her magicka is depleted.
History/Backstory:
Giselle was originally born in High Rock, of two Breton parents - Geraster and Jylienne Gestal. They moved to Cyrodiil in search of a better life, but in the aftermath of the Great War things in the capital province were highly unstable, and her father was killed by bandits on the journey. He left enough inheritance for her mother to start a new life, which they did quietly in Anvil, her mother working as a cleaner in the castle.
Inquisitive from an early age, Giselle devoured every book her mother could get her hands on, and realised at the age of 10 that she had an affinity for magic, after nearly setting a passing Khajiit traveller on fire by accident (he asked for directions, she pointed, and flames came out). She initially feared this affinity, and tried to keep it under control for a few years after that, but gradually became less afraid of her abilities and started to spend hours at a time in their garden, training herself on makeshift targets. When she was 17, her mother managed to get her a job as a clerk in Castle Anvil, and she used nearly every spare Septim she earned to buy spell tomes and other books of learning. Less than a year later, her mother contracted a particularly nasty case of blood rot, which proved fatal.
Giselle continued living in their small home and working as a clerk in Castle Anvil for several more years, and after spending a year in mourning she resumed her training - notably, adding restoration spells to the mix and taking up alchemy too, perhaps in response to her mother's death. She began stockpiling as much coin as she could, determined to leave Cyrodiil in pursuit of knowledge, and to become a proper mage, feeling that the Synod and the College of Whispers were both inappropriate to her outlook on life. Several months ago she resigned from her job at Castle Anvil, sold all of her possessions, including her parents' house, and hired transport to Skyrim.
Unfortunately, just like Cyrodiil when her parents first moved there, Skyrim was unstable and rife with lawlessness, being as it was in the midst of a civil war. Mirroring the fate of her father, almost as soon as she bid her carriage driver farewell, she was accosted by raiders and robbed of her luggage and coin. Fortunately she was unharmed, and knew better than to try and resist them, but all she had left to her name was her mother's old circlet - hidden in her clothing, fortunately, but not something she could ever part with - and the clothes on her back. She arrived in Riverwood not long afterwards, and began doing odd jobs around the small village such as wood chopping, and even befriended the local smith, who attempted to give her lessons (which she failed, though she was able to keep the 'dagger' she forged as a souvenir). After a few days, she raised enough coin to purchase some supplies and fresh clothing, and continued on her journey.